On Wed, Mar 24, 2010 at 1:23 PM, Chris Turner <c.tur...@199technologies.org> wrote: > Sylvestre Gallon wrote: >> It's not that I am not up to it or that I think that I am not able to >> do it, but I will probably need more help and more mentoring to >> implement a kvm-like subsystem than to port dragonflybsd to xen. > > Aggelos Economopoulos wrote: >> >> What kind of changes would you have to make to our core kernel code for >> Xen support? > > Was thinking about this again myself - as someone who has mucked around with > merging various things into vkernel / from other os's - > > (assuming you are new to developing on any of the BSD-like systems or > similar) > > you might simply take a look at what it would take to make either possible > before you commit to one approach or the other - > > I'd suggest first investigating how the dragonfly VKERNEL works (as you'll > need to be adding a new 'architecture' anyhow - and VKERNEL is a good > example of a quasi-architecture that is part 'real' (e.g. i386), and > partially 'virtual' (e.g. vkernel's supporting vmspace) - so it would be > useful to know for either approach. > > After you get some kind of understanding of this, perhaps adding some silly > little change to get a hang of the build process, etc, > > perhaps take a look at the NetBSD Xen implementation (as I'd suspect it is > the best place to start for a port), to see if this approach still makes > sense.. > > In the process you'll be able to see how things might work and decide on the > best approach / pluses and minuses - one thing I can think of offhand is > that Xen might need more driver work, whereas something native might be able > to be 'kludged' around .. with xen, you'll need a host platform and also a > dragonfly dev system (so two build systems / source trees to deal > with/learn), whereas dragonfly would be one, etc. > > of course there are things in the other direction as well but as noted > before I am biased :) > > other side effect of this is at the end of this, you'll know what you're > getting into - and also have a dev system in place! > > anyhow, good luck with your investigation and look forward to hearing about > your progress in either case.. > > - Chris >
OK, I will have fun this week with vkernel and Xen, and afterwards I will try to do some research, write a report and submit it on the mailling list. The report will deal with : - what I need to upgrade into DragonFlyBSD tree to support Xen, what has been done in netbsd, which driver are modified, etc... - the way the vkernel can be upgraded to work on pc64. - What can be done to add a KVM-like implementation in a vkernel-like fashion. Thanks for your time and your help. Cheers, -- Sylvestre Gallon
